Technology: Trash or Treasure? Essay

There’s no denying that technology has grown to play a major role in education and learning. Students are using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to research, complete, and even collaborate on assignments, both in and outside of the classroom. Timothy D. Snyder and Thomas L. Friedman both have written articles expressing their opposing opinions on technology in the classroom. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University who has written five different award-winning books. In his article, “Why Laptops Are Distracting America’s Future Workforce”, Snyder explains to students and teachers why he is against technology in the classroom. Thomas Friedman is a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, author of six award-winning

Throughout this course, a new perspective has provided us with the opportunity to take a look at many of the different ways in which the digital world has become one of the most dominant viewpoints of today’s generation, and how technology has taken over and welcomed itself into many aspects of our lives. This course paper will take a look at one topic of interest in particular, which in hopes will shed some light on a heavily discussed topic in the education world: does technology help or hinder the student. This paper will look to prove the point and discover more about the way in which technology has been incorporated into the classroom, both in an elementary context as well as a post-secondary context, and the effects that it has had on the student, the teacher, and the overall academic development that accompanies it.

“I am convinced that learning to live with both internal and external distractions is all about teaching the concept of focus.” (Rosen 11) Are we being driven to distraction? This question is posed in Larry Rosen's essay Driven To Distraction; he argues students are distracted by technology. He makes his argument effective through use of logos, tone and rhetorical patterns. However, Rosen's essay is weakened by not addressing opposing arguments and by using a false authority fallacy. He explains how technology greatly distracts students nowadays and then offers techniques we can apply to help increase their focus and encourage them to be less “plugged in”.

The rise and use of technology slowly cause students to not be able to grow their ability to think and focus. In the article, “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” by Matt Richtel, states, “Scientists say juggling emails, phone calls, and other incoming

Technology has a huge impact on everyone. Despite the variety of age groups, we have all become dependent on using technology throughout our lives. With the use of smartphones, alarm clocks, headphones, and so forth, we have started to invest tech into our everyday lifestyle, where it is now a social norm. As we are moving rapidly into a tech-based world, the use of technology has been incorporated into classrooms. Teachers have introduced PowerPoints, chatrooms, online assignments and much more to make the classroom run smoothly and help students accomplish more from their learning. However, problems can arise with technology usage in the classroom. Through students being able to access technology, they can become distracted

Many of our students have smartphones, laptops, and tablets they use throughout the school day for school work. While some students depend on their devices to look up the current fashion trends and football stats, we feel that technology has also enabled students to think in a different way. Many students are quick on their feet to Google information to prove their friend wrong, send texts and emails in less than 10 seconds, and get excited when they are allowed to use their

Technology has opened many opportunities for students, but is it taking a toll on their education? Based on the two articles the “Avid Weekly: When it is and isn’t OK to be on your smartphone: the conclusive guide” by Caitlin Dewey and Is Technology Killing Our Friendship By Lauren Tarshis, technology can have a lasting effect that can either be positive or negative. Technology has let the world stay in touch with what’s happening around them, which has positively affected students and their surroundings. Causing disruptions though is something not to be happy about, because if technology advances in classrooms, students can easily be picked off into the wonders of technology. Although technology has helped students prosper, there are still

When i’m not using technology I can focus and concentrate on content. Being able to focus can make the class more engaging and improve grades. Nicholas Carr stated that “ When we use our cellphones and our computer all the time we are always distracted.” Without technology we can be focused on the content we are studying and get more accomplished.”

Alfonzo Porter, a publisher for The Washington Post, is a strong believer that technology has caused massive problems when it comes to educating students. The publisher mentions that student are losing interest in school and becoming more distracted with their cellular devices. In the newspaper, Porter writes, “76 percent of teachers believed students are being conditioned by the internet to find quick answers, leading to a loss of concentration.” Alfonzo Porter believes that students are not taking advantage of technology, instead, they are manipulating it. In today’s modern society, there is a higher percentage of students using their cellphones to find answers, compared to students that are properly reading a book to find solutions to their problems. This issue is leading students becoming less interested in expanding their knowledge.

Some researchers argue that the amount of time we spend on the internet has disenabled us from being able to the “deep mental connections that form when we read deeply….” (Carr 575). Some other personal anecdotes suggest that technology has lessened our ability to focus. For example, Carr includes the story of Bruce Friedman who confesses that he has “almost completely lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article” whether on the web or in print (Carr 574). If such hypotheses are true, than removing, or at least limiting, technology in the classroom might be beneficial to cadets, so that there can be an environment where we can learn without a world of

Technology is one of the greatest things invented, yet it has many drawbacks. In school and at home, smartphones, texting, video games, iPads, Facebook, Web surfing and television do get me distracted and interrupt my learning. Technology is everywhere you can see. Technology is in the workplace, education, at the mall, and many other places. In education, technology is a great thing, making life easier for teachers and administrators everywhere and lessons more engaging for students. However, technology is a huge distraction.

If students do not use technology in high school, they don’t learn the proper way to handle technology. When students go to college, they will miss important things like notes and lectures because they are too busy trying to pull

As we navigate through the 21st century, technology in the classroom is becoming further predominant. iPads are replacing our textbooks, and we can research any desired topic on our smartphones. The impact that technology has had on today’s schools has been utterly momentous. Educators have now seen firsthand the numerous benefits of technology in the classroom. According to a study by IT Trade Association CompTIA, around 75 percent of educators have come to the conclusion that technology has a positive impact on the education process. Educators have also recognized the significance of developing these technological skills in students so they will be prepared to enter the workforce after they graduate (Cox). By incorporating technology in the classroom, teachers are setting our students up for a successful life outside of school. The increase of technology has even changed how teachers teach along with how

Furthermore, as communication and writing skills diminish our school performance begins to be affected. The entertainment of mobile devices distracts nearly every student in the classroom whether it is texting, or playing games, or surfing the net. Mobile devices also play a big role in communication by making it possible for students to easily communicate with each other when they should not be. The power to communicate with virtually anyone is a major distraction. Some teens are so attached to their technological devices they sleep with phones on and wake up to answer text messages they get at night. When kids have cell phones in their classrooms they are extremely distracted from what is actually being taught. They are looking down and playing their games or going on social networking sites instead of listening to their teachers. With the constant distraction of technology and teens short attention spans reading and writing skills have suffered significantly and vocabularies are shrinking. This relates to their education and their ability to do well in school. Another problem is that technology provides students with the ability to explore numerous search engines for any problem they come across and copy them word for word. It seems that students don’t spend time thinking; they are simply repeating information instead of learning concepts and ideas. When students do this, they do not actually learn the

Remember the days of the Old West? The women walked around with their parasols or rode in a horse drawn carriage and the men rode fast and furious on their horses. Everything you needed was right there in town: the saloon, the general store, and the barber. When one needed to get somewhere, they would walk. If they needed to travel far, there were steam-powered locomotives. As towns and cities grew larger, it was not so convenient to walk everywhere. There was a need for a machine that could get us around to where we had to go. Technology was becoming a bigger part of the times and the machine we now know today as the automobile was invented.